What is the meaning of life?
One of the most oft asked questions, yet nobody knows the answer (save the cornfield mafia - allegedly). One of the questions philosophy attempts not to give you the answer - that would just defeat the purpose wouldn't it?- but to help you discover the answer to. There are many schools of thought that attempt to make sense of this world we live in and the seemingly insignificant roles we play in the theater of life. Existentialism and essentialism are two of the most popular.
Essentialism - the essence of things.
Essentialism is essentially the belief that everything and everyone has an essence. And this 'essence' is what makes it what it is. without this essence it ceases to have an identity. It is the defining or core property of the individual. What this implies for us humans is that we were born to be a certain way or do a certain thing fulfill a certain purpose - if you will . Everything is predetermined and our actions are reflections of our essence. We were born with this essence and it defines every aspect of our personalities, our lives. To be a good human being is to fulfill your purpose and the only way to do this is to discover your essence and adhere to and live by it.
This school of thought has been the dominant for centuries. With popular thinkers like Plato and Aristotle endorsing it, why not? Until the late nineteenth century when philosophers like Soren Kierkegaard and Jean Paul Satre - also considered to be the first proper existentialist philosophers challenged this view.
The birth of Existentialism
There's no way to know if anyone believed in the principle that we know as existentialism today before Kierkegaard and Satre 'introduced' it in the late 1800's. But we can agree that it formally originated as a separate school of thought then.
Commonly existentialism is associated with the meaninglessness of life. Thanks to Albert Camus - the french philosopher who introduced the idea of absurdism (which is basically that we have no purpose and are looking for meaning in a meaningless world). This isn't all there is to existentialism. It is rather a belief that 'existence precedes essence' according to Satre. We exist and therefore we have the ability to create our own essence. It isn't as much about meaninglessness as it is about choosing to find meaning by cultivating an essence by way of our actions. Yes, life is intrinsically meaningless but you can choose to imbue it with any sense of purpose you want to. The point of life is to live 'authentically' without letting anybody (parents, friends, the government or even your religion) interfere in your decisions and doing what you think is right. Because everybody's actions are what make them who they are so letting someone else decide for you is synonymous with letting go of your identity.
Existentialism is also associated with atheism because it says that we are free to do anything we want, without any god to judge our actions. We decide for ourselves what is moral and what is immoral, what is fair or just and basically whether killing someone or stealing something is right or wrong.
But the thing is, there is also theist existentialism that says that god does exist and he did create the universe but he did so without choosing to assign any particular purpose to anything.
So what can be concluded? Is essentialism right or existentialism?
This question doesn't have a single answer. According to essentialism, there is a right answer. and this answer may be in favor of either existentialism or essentialism depending on your essence. But according to existentialism, what you decide is the right answer (provided you make the decision authentically) is actually the right answer. It's a paradox of sorts. Sometimes gets my head spinning.
One of the most oft asked questions, yet nobody knows the answer (save the cornfield mafia - allegedly). One of the questions philosophy attempts not to give you the answer - that would just defeat the purpose wouldn't it?- but to help you discover the answer to. There are many schools of thought that attempt to make sense of this world we live in and the seemingly insignificant roles we play in the theater of life. Existentialism and essentialism are two of the most popular.
Essentialism - the essence of things.
Essentialism is essentially the belief that everything and everyone has an essence. And this 'essence' is what makes it what it is. without this essence it ceases to have an identity. It is the defining or core property of the individual. What this implies for us humans is that we were born to be a certain way or do a certain thing fulfill a certain purpose - if you will . Everything is predetermined and our actions are reflections of our essence. We were born with this essence and it defines every aspect of our personalities, our lives. To be a good human being is to fulfill your purpose and the only way to do this is to discover your essence and adhere to and live by it.
This school of thought has been the dominant for centuries. With popular thinkers like Plato and Aristotle endorsing it, why not? Until the late nineteenth century when philosophers like Soren Kierkegaard and Jean Paul Satre - also considered to be the first proper existentialist philosophers challenged this view.
The birth of Existentialism
There's no way to know if anyone believed in the principle that we know as existentialism today before Kierkegaard and Satre 'introduced' it in the late 1800's. But we can agree that it formally originated as a separate school of thought then.
Commonly existentialism is associated with the meaninglessness of life. Thanks to Albert Camus - the french philosopher who introduced the idea of absurdism (which is basically that we have no purpose and are looking for meaning in a meaningless world). This isn't all there is to existentialism. It is rather a belief that 'existence precedes essence' according to Satre. We exist and therefore we have the ability to create our own essence. It isn't as much about meaninglessness as it is about choosing to find meaning by cultivating an essence by way of our actions. Yes, life is intrinsically meaningless but you can choose to imbue it with any sense of purpose you want to. The point of life is to live 'authentically' without letting anybody (parents, friends, the government or even your religion) interfere in your decisions and doing what you think is right. Because everybody's actions are what make them who they are so letting someone else decide for you is synonymous with letting go of your identity.
Existentialism is also associated with atheism because it says that we are free to do anything we want, without any god to judge our actions. We decide for ourselves what is moral and what is immoral, what is fair or just and basically whether killing someone or stealing something is right or wrong.
But the thing is, there is also theist existentialism that says that god does exist and he did create the universe but he did so without choosing to assign any particular purpose to anything.
So what can be concluded? Is essentialism right or existentialism?
This question doesn't have a single answer. According to essentialism, there is a right answer. and this answer may be in favor of either existentialism or essentialism depending on your essence. But according to existentialism, what you decide is the right answer (provided you make the decision authentically) is actually the right answer. It's a paradox of sorts. Sometimes gets my head spinning.
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